Bitcoin Cash Ecosystem Sees a Tidal Wave of Merchant Acceptance

Just recently news.Bitcoin.com reported on Bitpay launching bitcoin cash (BCH) integration for the firm’s loadable Visa debit cards. Since then the company has implemented BCH invoice support for all of the firm’s vendors, and now bitcoin cash can be spent with thousands of merchants worldwide.

Also read: Some of Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters Find it Difficult to ‘Cash Out’

Thousands of Merchants and Nonprofits Now Accept Bitcoin Cash

Merchant adoption has been increasing lately for the BCH ecosystem, but in one day that metric spiked considerably. Bitpay has fully integrated bitcoin cash payments for all of its vendors and merchants that utilize the company’s payment processing services. Since the ‘cryptocurrency fever’ swept the globe in 2017, Bitpay’s merchant list has grown considerably last year. This includes significant merchant growth in the U.S., South America, Asia, and Europe.

Bitcoin cash can be used with well-known merchants like Microsoft.

Bitcoin cash supporters have been extremely pleased to see some of their favorite merchants accepting BCH as a form of payment and network fees are considerably less. The list of Bitpay vendors who now accept BCH, includes Newegg, Apmex, Vultr, Namecheap, eGifter, Gyft, Zeek, Wefunder, Heifer International, Vodi, JM Bullion, and many more. This also includes a wide variety of nonprofits and charities like Save the Children, the Internet Archive, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Wikipedia.

Bitcoin cash can be used to donate to hundreds of charities and nonprofit organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

BIP 70 Wallet Support for Bitcoin Cash and BCH Being Used for South Korean Cross-Border Payments

In addition to the full range of merchants and non-profits now available to the BCH ecosystem. Bitcoin cash payments are also now compatible with the Payment-Protocol (BIP70) used in Bitpay invoices. Further, there are currently more supporting wallets utilizing this feature, and the Electron Cash client was added yesterday. Wallets that are compatible with the BCH Payment-Protocol include BRD Wallet, Bitcoin Core, Edge (formally Airbitz), Electrum, Mycelium, Copay, Bitpay, and the Bitcoin.com Wallet. Bitcoin cash users who have these types of wallets can utilize any Bitpay merchant.

The BCH wallet Electron Cash can now be used with the Payment-Protocol for those who wish to pay Bitpay merchant invoices.

Another announcement from Bitpay that will also please BCH proponents is the company’s recent partnership with the South Korean exchange Bithumb. The two companies are launching a cross-border payment solution which will utilize BTC and BCH to help cheapen the costs of international payments for South Korean businesses. Bitpay executive Sonny Singh says that South Korean companies are sometimes paying or receiving $100,000 – $5 million USD per invoice. “A 1 -2% savings on each invoice can lead to dramatic cost savings,” explains Singh.

Overall the announcement of Bitpay integrating bitcoin cash has pleased BCH proponents quite a bit as the number of merchants added to the ecosystem, and the new South Korean cross-border payment platform will increase BCH usage greatly. In addition to Bitpay, since the San Francisco company Coinbase integrated bitcoin cash support, BCH payments can be used with its new merchant plugin.

What do you think about Bitpay integrating bitcoin cash? Let us know in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock, Bitpay, Bitcoin Cash, Microsoft, and the EFF. 

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